Chapter 2

I jumped as my phone alerted me to a text message. It was late afternoon and I hadn't heard from Haeston for a couple of days. Tonight, he would be expecting me to meet him.

The message was from Brida, and I heaved a sigh of relief as I opened it.

'Cauldron tonight? Gisela and Uhtred have tickets for Satan's Sword, enough for us all.'

I hesitated before I answered. I loved going to the Cauldron. It had been my favourite nightclub since I got my first fake ID at fifteen. Any up-and-coming band worth its salt wanted to play the Cauldron, and we'd been following the progress of Satan's Sword's tour since they left Glasgow three weeks ago. We'd all downloaded their album but been sorely disappointed when we found the tickets to the gig were sold out.

'How did he get tickets?' I tapped out eventually.

'Went online the minute the tour was announced and got five, kept it a surprise for G.'

I sighed. Uhtred had to be the perfect boyfriend. Who else would buy five tickets to a gig to treat his girlfriend and her three best mates? Saying no would be rude and ungrateful, even though someone else would bite Uhtred's hand off for the spare ticket if I didn't use it. But I wanted to go. I couldn't keep hiding in my flat forever. Besides, with any luck Haeston would hang out in the Red Bar waiting for me to show up, and we'd be in the Cauldron as soon as the doors opened at eight.

'Meet you there,' I answered Brida before I could change my mind. Then I got up to find something to wear.

An hour later, I'd decided on simple and unappealing—black jeans, a cropped band tee shirt with the sleeves torn out, and baseball boots. It was June so I wouldn't need a jacket. I left my long blonde hair loose and added minimal makeup—heavy black eyeliner and dark lipstick. Then I called a taxi company and ordered one to pick me up fifteen minutes before the club opened and drop me at the door. Ordinarily, I would have walked—it was only a mile across town—but not today.

I took nothing with me except for my credit card, my door key, and my phone. When the taxi hooted outside, I sprinted out of the building and dived into the backseat.

"Cauldron," I said as I slammed the door closed.

"Skade?" The driver turned around, grinning, and I realised it was another one of Uhtred's mates. Uhtred used to drive a taxi himself.

"Hey, Sihtric. How's business?"

"Busy. And all the better for seeing you." He turned back to the wheel and the car began to move. "Not like you to take the lazy option."

"I got held up doing something. Don't want to miss the gig."

"Ah, yes, Satan's Sword. You lucky buggers. Uhtred told me. Get plenty of photos, yeah? Post them on Facebook."

I laughed. "Yeah, I know you fancy their singer."

"He's hot. What can I say?"

I wrinkled my nose. "I can't see it myself. And who the hell calls themselves Bloodhair? He has a great voice, though."

I chatted with Sihtric for the rest of the short journey to the club. When he pulled up, he waved away my offer to pay. "Seriously, Skade? I'm not gonna put three quid on your credit card. Anyway, Uhtred would skin me."

I grinned. "You should tell Finan that."

"Aww, Irishmen are tight-arses. If you shoved a piece of coal up his rectum, a few months later you'd have a diamond."

I burst out laughing. "I'm sure Finan would be delighted if he knew you were thinking about sticking something up his rectum."

Sihtric snorted and flushed.

"I'll take plenty of photos. I promise." I reached between the seats to give his shoulder a squeeze, then got out of the car.

After a few anxious glances left and right, I spotted the girls and Uhtred in the line outside the door and hurried to join them.

"You're cutting it fine. Here's your ticket." Uhtred passed me an orange strip of paper.

"Thanks, I really appreciate this."

"You do know you're paying, right? It's fifteen quid." He raised his eyebrows.

"Don't be mean." Gisela elbowed him. "He's joking, Skade." She draped her arm around my shoulders and I looked her up and down. She wore lace, leather, and satin, all in black, with several silver chains around her neck, huge heavy boots with a dozen buckles, and probably every product Maybelline had ever produced.

"You look great," I said.

"And you're dressing down. I thought you'd be done up to the nines."

I shrugged. "Not feeling it. I just want to see the band."

"Okay." She frowned. "Are you all right?"

"Fine."

Brida and Aethelflaed surrounded me then, showing off their outfits and makeup. The three of them put me to shame. I was dressed more like Uhtred in his jeans and band tee shirt, but I wouldn't have been happy in skimpy sexy clothes, drawing attention to myself. Not tonight.

Gradually, the line got closer to the doors and we entered the club, holding up our tickets to be checked before we headed up the stairs. Satan's Sword were playing on the main stage. Gisela and Aethelflaed immediately headed for the toilets, while Brida and I went to save some places at the barrier in front of the stage. Uhtred made his way to the bar.

Brida and I leaned back against the barrier and gazed around the club, checking out the rest of the audience waiting to the see the band.

"There's a really hot guy at the bar," Brida said.

"Which one?" I followed the direction she was looking.

"The one with the sides of his head shaved and a blond ponytail."

"He looks like a thug," I said with a frown.

Brida sighed. "I suppose."

"Don't you like any of Uhtred's friends? What about Finan? He's hilarious."

"Yeah, he's funny as hell, but as a mate, not a potential boyfriend. Sihtric's cute but he's—"

"Gay," I finished for her.

"What about you? You haven't been out since that guy you were chatting to online turned out to be such a creep."

"He's still a creep. I haven't kept going on about it, but he found out where I live. He sent me a bunch of dirty pictures and an email telling me to meet him in the Red Bar at seven." I pulled out my phone to check the time. It was eight-fifteen and I had a Facebook message that said, 'Where are you?'

"You should call the police." Brida frowned in concern.

"I did. They don't want to know because he hasn't actually done anything. I need to fix it myself."

"Borrow Uhtred and get him to meet the guy with you."

"Uhtred wouldn't scare anybody." I rolled my eyes. "He's too nice."

Brida glanced back towards the bar. "Maybe if I hook up with the blond thug, you can borrow him instead. He'd scare the pants off any creep."

I snorted. "You're not serious, are you?"

She shook her head began to look for other potential hook-ups. I glanced at the guy at the bar again. I supposed I could see what she liked. He was all muscles and tattoos. At that moment, he turned around with two pints in his hands. He descended the couple of steps to the dancefloor and handed the other pint to an older guy with masses of long hair who waited for him. I recognised Skorpa, Winchester's best known criminal. They headed straight towards me.

I turned around quickly and elbowed Brida. "Don't look now but your blond thug and Skorpa are heading this way."

She looked at me, eyes wide. "I thought Skorpa was in prison," she hissed.

"Not anymore, apparently."

The blond guy leaned on the barrier three or four feet away from me, with Skorpa the other side of him. They appeared to be talking to another blond muscular guy with a similar hair style to the one nearer to me. I looked away quickly.

Gisela and Aethelflaed appeared then, and Uhtred returned from the bar with two drinks for himself and Gisela. She leaned on the barrier and he stood behind her with his arms around her. Brida wedged herself between them and me, and Aethelflaed took a space the other side. The crowd began to close in around us, and I folded my arms on top of the barrier to try to hold my place. A couple of young guys squeezed between Brida and me and I was forced to move to my right, bringing me closer to Skorpa's friend.

"Hey, gorgeous."

I stiffened as a pair of thick arms appeared either side of me. Fat fingers gripped the top of the barrier, and a thumb with a dirty nail stroked my elbow. Hot breath, stale with cigarette smoke, fanned my cheek, and I shuddered.

"Leave me alone, Haeston."

"You stood me up. I waited in the Red Bar for you for an hour. I don't like being made to look like a fool. But I'm willing to forget about it if you're nice to me now."

"I told you before, I'm not interested. When are you going to get the message?" I tried to shrug him off, but he wrapped an arm around my waist. "Get off me!" I clenched my fists as he pressed himself against me. I looked for Brida, but she and Uhtred and the others had become separated from me by the guys that had squeezed between us. More had followed and now I had no hope of reaching my friends or getting their attention.

"Come on, Skade. We could have some fun, you and me. We could start right now."

I shivered. I felt sick and my heart was pounding so hard I thought it might jump out of my chest. If only I'd stayed at home. I might have been a prisoner in my own home, but I wouldn't be in this position, which was a hundred times worse than receiving dirty pictures and messages.

I glanced to my right and there was the muscular guy with his elbow almost touching mine. He must have moved to his left as I moved to my right. He was at least six feet tall, and he looked like he spent most of his life in the gym. At the other side of him was Skorpa, and then the other blond guy, all drinking from their plastic pint cups and talking. One of the other two addressed the one Brida had liked and called him Ragnar.

Skorpa was bad news. Anyone with any sense stayed away from him and his friends. He had been to prison twice that I knew of—the first time had been something to do with drugs, and he'd been inside several years for that. He seemed to think he was a revered gang leader, but most people were just scared of him. The guy named Ragnar was probably no good either, if they were friends.

"What are you looking at?" Haeston said in my ear.

"Nothing."

He pressed a hot kiss onto my neck. "I was in two minds about coming here tonight. I was pissed off when you didn't show up at the bar. I had tickets for us to come to this gig. I'm glad I did now." He moulded himself tighter to my back. "This is going to be fun."

Usually, I was tough and I'd never had any trouble dealing with unwanted attention before now. But Haeston was an animal, and after the past few weeks I'd become exhausted and scared, and I didn't know how to shake him off. Now I had a decision to make. I could put up with him mauling me for the next three hours, and God knew what would happen after that—or I could jump out of the frying pan into the fire by asking the thugs to my right for help.